AMREP 10,000 Parcels to Develop Oil and Gas
All the brown dots are the land holdings for AMREP. They hold 10,000 parcels that they could lease oil and gas mineral rights.
Once one Special Use Permit and rezoning change is granted it opens the door to a massive oil and gas development that will change the Rio Grande Valley forever.
The risks outweigh the benefits of oil and gas exploration and production:
1.
A rezoning changes with effect the property values of residential and agricultural lands in the area from 10 – 30%.
2.
Fugitive Hydrocarbon releases including methane, which have new regulation from the EPA are regulated by NMED Air Quality, which has an industry run task force deciding their own restrictions.
3.
On Dec 10
th P&Z Meeting OCD Division Director said there are no Groundwater Contamination from oil and Gas Drilling but the on their website there is a 35 page report listing all the groundwater contamination in the state from oil and gas Drilling. Fracking is exempt from the Clean Water Act and therefore contamination of drinking water well supply is in peril. THIS INCLUDEs CAA, CWA, RCRA, NEPA, EPCRTKA
State and Local governments have no jurisdiction over regulating the fracking aspects of this industry. This is why people refer to this industry as unregulated
4.
Once the permitting is approve and the drilling begins other permits for flaring and venting and injection wells can be applied for and approved without pubic hearings.
5.
No public notice to residents from a private lease holding was given to area residents before the permit was issued.
6.
Requires millions of gallons of water to drill despite Sandridge downplaying water usage and health affects from Flow Back.
7.
Noise of generators run 24/7,
8.
Trucks one an hour driving past homes and schools and traffic up and down Hwy 550, Unser Blvd and out to the drill site.
9.
Trucking regulations require fracking liquids truck to post placards on liquids hauled, which shows toxic mix of chemicals that are subject to spills.
10.
Sandridge energy has refused to stop injecting wells even at the request of Oklahoma OCC and the Gov. Of Oklahoma.
11.
Sandridge energy has been delisted from the NYSE
12.
Questions regarding Financial Assurance permit from the NM OCD have not been answered. The permit should be revoked.
13.
Fracking is not a regulated industry in the State of NM only an oil-drilling permit is given and regulated, with oversight on the well drilling casing have oversight.
14.
The drilling companies only have to disclose their drilling fluids type and amounts AFTER the drilling is done in a final closure report.
15.
Spills happen on the fracking pad and platform. These spills of drilling fluids will wash into arroyos a seep into the aquifer through alluvium percolation and migration into the aquifer.
16.
The Rezoning change affects the integrity of the residential and agricultural properties adjacent and near and within an 8-mile impact zone from the fracking pad site.
17.
Fracking and Injection well storage causes earthquakes according to the USGS.
18.
Bonding rates for the area rise,
19.
Insurance will not cover property damage from manmade disasters.
20.
Health effects to children pregnant woman and elderly and those with immune deficiencies.
21.
The bonding process doesn’t begin to cover cleanup and closure and if there were any disaster for flaring, venting, drilling, hauling, noise, and health issues caused by direct or indirect pollution sources. The bonding process for oil and gas wells in the state does not begin to cover the expenses of what these operations bear on existing neighborhoods and residents or the expenses on closure and cleanup leaving the taxpayers the bill. According to EPA most state programs lack the following and are ignored in most oil and gas producing states.
a.
Lining of ponds
b.
Impediment of Surface water runoff
c.
Maintenance requirements under
d.
Solid-waste management oversight
e.
Facility Requirements
f.
Closure and Reclamations Requirements
g.
Ground Water Monitoring
h.
Leachate collections requirement
i.
Air monitoring to the stands that are required to combat climate change
j.
Proper waste characterization
22.
Shell explored this area and found nothing that would be feasible or productive. (See Bruce Black Report 1980 NM Geologist Society)
23.
In other states is that when a drilling company goes bankrupt, leaving cleanup to local and state authorities, they have been incorporating under another name and they continue to lease and drill. A few states have passed laws stating that if a drilling company, goes bankrupt they are not allowed to incorporate under another name.
24.
AMREP/Outterrim Investments have 10,000 parcels of land that can be privately leased in the area once they get permission to drill. Approval of this rezoning change, a special exception, or special use application opens the door the checkerboard fracking in Rio Rancho Estates and the Albuquerque Basin. This will result in a property taking from Residential and Agricultural properties.
25.
Conservation land is adjacent and near by that this operation will spoil the integrity of the purpose of enjoyment of open space and conversation land to protect the arroyos from spills that may migrate into drinking water and the Rio Grande.
26.
There has been no cost benefit analysis.
27.
The dangling carrot of severance tax and other revenues such as the GRT Gross Receipts Tax, which was to total $54 M to State coffers according to their verbal presentation. The State and county can transition from fossil fuel dependence with an ordinance and law of a Carbon Fee and Dividend (direct to Households) system those transitions off of fossil fuel revenues to renewables revenues without loss to the state land grant fund.
28.
Chesapeake Energy defrauded thousands out of royalties on gas drilling in Pennsylvania under the reign of CEO Tom Ford who is now heading up Sandridge Energy.
29.
Several states and communities have banned fracking because of these issues a moratorium on Fracking and Oil Drilling in Sandoval County should be instated. They include California, New York, Arkansas, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.
30.
Background checks outside of the State of NM were not done to insure financial assurance.
31.
Corporations can issue private leases on private land for drilling without accountability to local, state and federal authorities.
Sources
Fracking By the Numbers. PDF American Policy Institute
Natural Gas STAR Technology Transfer Pre-Conference Workshop PDF, Sept. 24, 2013 pg.8
Tom Mullins INDEPENDENT GAS AND OIL PRODUCERS ASSOCATION Presentation to the County Commission Dec. 10, 2015
New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, Environmental Bureau, Generalized Record of Ground Water Impact Sites, accessed at
www.emnrd.state.nm.us/OCD/ documents/rptGeneralizedGWImpact.pdf, 20 September
2013.
There are many
exemptions for hydraulic fracturing under United States federal law: the oil and gas industries are exempt or excluded from certain sections of a number of the major federal environmental laws. These laws range from protecting clean water and air, to preventing the release of toxic substances and chemicals into the environment: the
Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act,
Safe Drinking Water Act,
National Environmental Policy Act,
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as
Superfund.
NM OCD Rules and Regulations Website
Fracking by the Numbers. PDF pg. 22
David Hughes Post Carbon Institute Shale Gas Reality Check PDF.
There are many
exemptions for hydraulic fracturing under United States federal law: the oil and gas industries are exempt or excluded from certain sections of a number of the major federal environmental laws. These laws range from protecting clean water and air, to preventing the release of toxic substances and chemicals into the environment: the
Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act,
Safe Drinking Water Act,
National Environmental Policy Act,
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as
Superfund.
Right-to-know Act Exempts citizens’ knowledge of drilling fluids.
Pnas.org http://www.pnas.org/content/112/43/13184.abstract ... “Using analyses of organic compounds coupled with inorganic geochemical fingerprinting, estimates of groundwater residence time, and geospatial analyses of shale gas wells and disclosed safety violations, we determined that the dominant source of organic compounds to shallow aquifers was consistent with surface spills of disclosed chemical additives...”
USGS Report Efforts to Monitor Seismicity in Central Oklahoma D. E. McNamara1, J. L. Rubinstein2, E. Myers1, G. Smoczyk1, H. M. Benz1, R. A. Williams1, G. Hayes1, D. Wilson3, R. Herrmann4, N. D. McMahon5, R. C. Aster5, E. Bergman6, A. Holland7, and P. Earle1
This shaking destroyed six houses, 20 homes sustained major damage (averaging $80,000 per home for repairs), and 38 homes had minor damage (estimated repair costs of $13,000 per home) (Branstetter and Killman,2015)
EPA.gov
NM Geologist Society Report Bruce Black 1980
Rio Rancho Estates Master Plan Sandoval County Addendum Picture
Application packet from Sandridge Energy and Rio Rancho Estates Master Plan County of Sandoval
Independent Gas and oil Presentation in PDF packet pg. 18 to County Commission Dec. 10 2015
Recording of Dec10th P&Z Meeting from, Mr. Catanach, Division Chief, NM OCD
